She was born in America but it was said to be her husband, who grew up in Peterborough, who fell in love with the US after being sent there on an assignment for work.

Mrs Moretti said: “They chose that town to live in specifically because the school was so good. My daughter told me, ‘It’s safe and lovely here, Mum’.

“On Friday I was out buying Christmas presents for Dylan and his big brother Jake. I got a garbled message on my answerphone from my daughter. She was almost incoherent. I called her back and she told me what had happened.

“She kept saying ‘Mum, how do you tell an eight-year-old his six-year-old brother is dead and not coming back?’ Jake was at school that day. He heard the gunfire that killed his brother.”

The family moved into a house just 100 yards away from Lanza’s family home, on the opposite side of the road.

Dressed all in black, he took the keys to her car and drove to the school armed with an assault rifle and two handguns. He bypassed the school’s security door system by blasting out a window.

Mrs Moretti added: “The family isn’t doing well. They are making funeral arrangements and waiting for his little body to be released to the funeral home. They are in their house. They live almost opposite the murderer and his mother. Why did he have to shoot 20 innocent babies? They were only six and seven years old.”

Mrs Hockley spoke glowingly in a local newspaper interview about their new home after the family moved there in January 2011. She said: “This was the place, when we were driving around, where we felt happy and comfortable. The schools here have been amazing and the people in my neighbourhood are incredible.

“Newtown is a wonderful place to live and we’re looking forward to being here a long, long time.”

Former neighbours of the family in Eastleigh, Hants, told how Mr Hockley, who now works for IBM in New York, returned there only last week.

Mr Hockley, who was finalising the sale of the family home, visited the local pub and told friends there how well the family were settling into their new home – showing off photos of his beloved boys.

Retired nanny Maria Sweet, 81, who lives next to the family’s former home, said: “When I woke up this morning and saw the news on the television my heart was just broken. I recognised Dylan’s face straight away because of that lovely smile of his.

“He was such a lovely little boy and very intelligent too. He enjoyed school. He was always outside on my front garden playing with his brother Jake.”

She added: “Ian and Nicole worked so very hard here and I think they wanted to move to America for a quieter life.

“I remember Nicole being really excited about going and the two boys were looking forward to seeing their grandparents more.

They thought it would be a nice place to bring up their children. They felt their life here was really full-on and Newtown seemed like a nice community to live in.”

Another neighbour, Mike Wimbridge, said: “I’m absolutely shocked. We had a phone call to let us know what had happened and I just can’t believe it.

“They were a young family who had moved back to America to be reunited with her family to give the children a better life. For the boy to be taken like this is a real shock.